Time is short...

Well, Thanksgiving weekend is over and we all have a chance to catch our breath (and loosen our belts!). Why is it that the general consensus is that we all get a free pass on the sin of gluttony for the Holidays? My pastor said something at church yesterday that really applies here. He said that he cringes when he hears people say that they know what they are doing or are about to do is wrong, but they are willing to live with the consequences. You see, the consequences are always MUCH more than we bargain for. We think we're pretty smart and we've done the math and have come to an intelligent conclusion that we can live with the consequences. 1+1=2 right? Yeah, try and tell THAT to my stomach as I lay awake sweating garlic and unable to sleep because of that pizza I just HAD to have at 11:30 PM after a huge dinner AND dessert. (This is all theoretical, of course.)


In all seriousness, I truly wish that a bit of gluttony here and there was the only sin for whose consequences I've paid throughout the years. Pastor Jason is correct. We never do a very good job of estimating the consequences. Looking back, the bit of fun we may have had by taking the 'wrong road' is always overwhelmingly swallowed by regret and hardship brought about by consequences that we didn't even see coming. Sometimes it's just enough to make you mad at yourself and swear that you'll never do that again (as my friend Sean so eloquently stated on facebook recently, 'Sean is wondering what he did to Patron that makes her treat him this way...'), and sometimes the consequences are life-changing.


Where am I going with all of this? Well, I like to keep this blog somewhat light-hearted. Not too preachy, you know? I want you to actually want to read it! But sometimes you have something that weighs so heavily on you that just have to get a little serious. This is one of those times. If you read my blog, you know that I am a Christian. That means, simply, I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I believe that He created me, He loves me, He died to save me from sin and I will one day meet Him face-to-face and spend eternity with Him. If you don't know Jesus like I do, I welcome your questions and comments. There's no one I'd rather talk about. What does that have to do with consequences and sin and all that? Well, here goes. I promise that tomorrow I'll get back to lighter fare, but this just has to be said.

I've been doing a lot of reading and soul-searching lately. It seems that God has allowed really hard things to be put into my life and the lives of many of those I love lately. The funny thing is, that without exception those same people, while at first having a bit of trouble coming to terms with what is going on, have all realised that God is using their circumstances to get their attention and bring them closer to Him. And the neat thing is that a common theme is starting to surface. Quite simply, Jesus is trying to tell us that HE IS COMING BACK SOON. He is getting His troops ready for a final push and He is willing to do anything to get our eyes focused on Him.

I could go on for an hour listing people who I love who are going through some of the hardest things in their life right now and who have turned their eyes back to the Source of their strength. God is getting us ready and focused to do some unspeakably awesome things for His Kingdom. In my case, it took a faulty heart valve and the possibility of imminent open-heart-surgery to jerk me back to attention. Believe me, my eyes are now on Him! I am still believing for a miracle, but I am SO thankful for my tough situation that has brought me back to the place where I need to be with my Creator.

So, what about sin and consequences? We all have friends and loved ones (maybe even yourself) who don't know Jesus. Some of the reading that I have been doing lately has really woken me up the the fact that the consequence of sin is death. Make that Death. With a capital 'D'. Maybe you are like me and have sort of put Hell on the backburner in your mind. It's a place of torment for Satan and his fallen angels, right? Hell for humans will just be separation from God, right? Wrong. Hell will most certainly be a place of torment for the Devil one day. But it is also a physical reality for every human who dies without making Jesus their Savior. It is a place that God never intended humans to end up. It's reality is too horrible to even imagine. But God's Word is very clear that God cannot abide the presence of sin, and unless we have our sins washed clean through accepting Jesus' free gift of forgiveness, we will have to spend eternity in Hell being punished right alongside sin and Satan.

Come on, Jeremy, lighten up already, right? Friends, this is just too urgent, too important to hold back. You see, I truly believe that Jesus is telling us that His return is coming very soon. That means that we don't have a lot of time left to help keep our friends and loved ones from suffering eternal consequences for sin. I know that some of you probably want to click on eBay or Amazon on your favorites list right now and forget about that nutty dude who just turned an interesting blog into a downer. Before you do, ask yourself if you are willing to take the gamble that I am just a whacko and that Hell is just a story to scare people into church and that if it does exist, 'good' people won't possibly be there. Are you willing to bet on the fact that Christ hasn't come back for the last two thousand years so He'll probably wait a couple hundred more? Are you so sure that tomorrow won't be your last day on Earth?

For those of you who know Jesus, are you willing to bet that you have plenty of time to kill before you need to get really serious with your family about the importance of knowing Christ? Are you willing to risk them spending eternity in everlasting torment? Sin sucks, as do the consequences. But thankfully, there is a way out. John 3:16 says that God loved the World so much that he sent his only Son Jesus to die for us (for our sins) so that whoever believes in Him will never perish but have everlasting Life. We get a free pass! I have mine. Do you have yours? Do your friends and family memebers have theirs? Time is short. Very short. God is doing amazing things around the world right now that haven't been seen since the time Jesus physically walked this Earth. He is getting us ready for His return. I long for that day and I want to bring as many others with me as I can! We'll have all the time in the world to relax when we get to Heaven. For now, we don't have a second to spare.